Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-10-17
A PANIC IN A THEATRE.
The Senseles< Madness that Sometines
Takes Hold of People.

II seems impossible. when you look
around vt gallant men and amiablo wom
en-, sitting placidly at play, that in a
moment, on the utterancc OF one word.
they can be turned into dumb, driven
cattle, senseless suicidal idiots. But il is
SO. Any night the auditorium of
fashionable theatre may echo To some uu-
fortunate note of alarm. In an instant
the gray haired banker, whose dignity
gave tone 10 his whole section, is walking
up the backs Of women and over the heads
Of children.
At the Park theatre one night the
theatre that happily was destroyed by fire
about three hours before the time when il
would have been packed by New iork's
hest people to witness Mrs. LanCtry's
debutl, some dude, entering up the unsafe
and tortuous stairway, threw his cigarette
through the iron grating Of the steps.
Some accumulated rubbish began 10
smolder. and volume of smoke poured
into the auditorium. About half the audi
ence sitting there knew that the stage had
an enormous square opening direct upon
Twenty second street-a door not ten feet
from the level Of the street. Every soul
in the house could have gone over the low
footlights, crossed the stage and been in
Twenty second street in three minutes
time. They had all entered the theatre
by the crooked narrow passage; they all
knew lis miserable limits; they saw the
smoke coming in at that narrow passage.
and vet when some scared scamp near the
door jumped TO his feet and screeched
Fire" they all with one accord started
to the rear regardless of life or limb.
Luckily that night a stalwart police
man, with the lungs of Stentor, calmly
said: There amt no fire: it's been put
out" He grabbed the first lot of mad
people and bodily put them down into
seats: but for G. few minutes there was
the widest kind of scrimmage. A well
known and diGnified citizen had sat in
high bred ease two seats ahead Of me dur
ing the performance. As the panic struck
him he rose mounted over the back OF
his seat and started to walk on the shout
ders of some fashionably attired ladies.
Ii seemed an occasion for remonstrance,
and l had slight but severe remark to
make. and made il with an opera glass;
the old gentleman took the kindly hint
and concluded TO walk on his legs in the
aisle, but he had made n fair start to
tramp 10 safety over his fellow creatures.
Another time. in the Cosmopolitan hall,
the place was crowded for first night of
minstrelSy There was a low gallery run
ming round the building, supported on n
series of iron posts. During the evening
one Of these posts slipped of the block
and crashed through into billiard saloon
in the basement: the gallery in that par
ticular spot sagCed, creaked and some
beam split with alarming noise. In a
moment all was excitement in the crowded
gallery. was sitting few feet in front
/ of this spot, and being fearful the people
might jump down on my devoted head. l
pushed my escort. II very important and
/ self-sufIicient gentleman, and suggested
we get into two broad aisles beside him,
where, il people jumped, they would not
/ jump on US. l got no response. and |
might as well have pushed at the side o:
the house, he was SO immOvable. With
level fronting eyelids" he confronted
nothing and looked at 1t steadily. He
/ clasped a hard Derby hat against his
/ stomach and was rs near petrifaction As Is
consistent with life.
/ After the alarm subsided and the per-
formance was resumed, it was discovered
that my scared friend had crushed his hat
! on his body rs fiat as a mustard plaster,
and pressed the nails Of one hand 50
venomously into the other that the blood
had started through the cut skin.-Cin-
rinnati Enquirer.